Aeronautics lidar revisited – Towards lidar-based gust and turbulence measurement for aircraft load alleviation control

P. Vrancken; L. Bizet; Th. Boulant; P. Cutipa; N. Fezans; M. Faccioni; H. de Haan; H. Jentink; D. Kiehn; O. Kliebisch; Ph. Linsmayer; L. Lombard; R. Lorbeer; T. Michel; P. Pichon; J. Pouillaude; A. S. Pankan; J. Thurn; R. Tump; M. Valla

doi:10.1051/epjconf/202636207003

Open Access

Issue		EPJ Web Conf. Volume 362, 2026 31^st International Laser Radar Conference (ILRC 31) Held Together with the 22^nd Coherent Laser Radar Conference (CLRC 22)


Article Number		07003
Number of page(s)		4
Section		Joint CLRC/ILRC Session: Airborne and Spaceborne Wind Lidar Missions
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202636207003
Published online		09 April 2026

EPJ Web of Conferences 362, 07003 (2026)
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202636207003

Aeronautics lidar revisited – Towards lidar-based gust and turbulence measurement for aircraft load alleviation control

P. Vrancken^(a), L. Bizet^(b), Th. Boulant^(b), P. Cutipa^(a), N. Fezans^(c), M. Faccioni^(a), H. de Haan^(d), H. Jentink^(d), D. Kiehn^(c), O. Kliebisch^(e), Ph. Linsmayer^(a), L. Lombard^(b), R. Lorbeer^(e), T. Michel^(b), P. Pichon^(b), J. Pouillaude^(b), A. S. Pankan^(a), J. Thurn^(e), R. Tump^(d) and M. Valla^(b)

^(a) Institute of Atmospheric Physics, German Aerospace Center (DLR) Oberpfaffenhofen, Weflling, Germany
^(b) Department of Optics and Associated Techniques, The French Aerospace Lab (ONERA) Palaiseau, France
^(c) Institute of Flight Physics, German Aerospace Center (DLR) Braunschweig, Germany
^(d) Netherlands Aerospace Centre (NLR) Amsterdam, The Netherlands
^(e) Institute of Technical Physics, German Aerospace Center (DLR) Stuttgart, Germany This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , ® 0000-0003-2364-5576

Published online: 9 April 2026

Abstract

We give an overview of the authors' and their institutions' latest R&D activities regarding Direct-Detection Doppler-Wind-Lidar (DD-DWL) for the usage as remote flow sensor on civil aircraft. The purpose of such a lidar, when flying through Clear Air Turbulence at cruise altitudes, is the provisioning of sufficient turbulent wind information for feeding a chain of gust reconstruction, control and command modules. Hence, aerodynamic effects on the aircraft structure shall be mitigated.

The long-standing record of the ONERA and DLR lidar groups in aeronautics' application lidar allowed us recently to team up in the European Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking (CAJU) co-financed project UP Wing with the agenda of maturing the critical technologies (like laser, Doppler spectrometric receiver, etc.) and validating these at component and system level with extensive ground and also airborne tests.

Here, we present the main bricks of this technology suite, an overview of some prior and actual achievements and future perspectives.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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